Adlai Stevenson

Adlai Ewing Stevenson I served as the 23rd Vice President of the United States (1893-97). Previously, he served as a Congressman from Illinois in the late 1870s and early 1880s. After his subsequent appointment as Assistant Postmaster General of the United States during Grover Cleveland’s first administration (1885-89), he fired many Republican postal workers and replaced them with Southern Democrats. This earned him the enmity of the Republican-controlled Congress, but made him a favorite as Grover Cleveland’s running mate in 1892, and he duly became Vice President of the United States.

In office, he supported the free-silver lobby against the gold-standard men like Cleveland, but was praised for ruling in a dignified, non-partisan manner.

In 1900, he ran for Vice President with William Jennings Bryan. Although unsuccessful, he was the first ex-Vice President to win re-nomination for that post with a different presidential candidate. Stevenson was the grandfather of Adlai Stevenson II, a Governor of Illinois and the unsuccessful Democratic presidential candidate in both 1952 and 1956.

Post navigation

Phi Delta Theta Museum

The Phi Delta Theta International Fraternity General Headquarters in Oxford, Ohio houses and oversees precious archives and museum quality artifacts that have been acquired since the founding of this great Fraternity. These museum rooms were designed to preserve and interpret the rich history of the issues and individuals that have played an important role in the Fraternity’s history and represent its commitment to the Cardinal Principles of Friendship, Sound Learning and Rectitude.

In conjunction with a major renovation of the General Headquarters interior during the summer of 2016, and to make this museum experience accessible to all Phis, the General Headquarters created this digital museum to bring much of this rich Phi Delta Theta history to you, wherever you are and whenever you want it. Whether you are interacting with this unique digital museum in the Museum Room at the General Headquarters in Oxford, or viewing its content elsewhere, we hope it brings to life the broad and deep greatness experienced by Phis, and as a result of Phis, since our founding in 1848.